The Shell House (p1)

During World War II most civilian explosives plants across the country were drafted into military service, producing explosive shells and other military explosives for the war effort. The Atlas Plant at Senter, however, had never been converted to ammunition production. It served the war effort in another capacity, producing the explosives mine companies needed to mine the large amounts of copper needed to create those munitions. In fact, Atlas increased its production substantially, to make up for other Atlas Plants that had been enlisted in the war.

Knowing that Senter never produced ammunition caused me a bit of confusion when I first heard about Atlas’s Shell House. It turns out that the “shell” in the building’s title referred to the paper tubes in which the putty-like nitro/dope mix is wrapped in. Above you can see some samples of these “shells”. Atlas produced several types of shells to accommodate the several types of explosives the plant created.

All the shells Atlas required were produced in a dedicated brick building set slightly apart from the rest of the production line, known as the Shell House. Above you can see the building as it looked while the plant was in operation. Inside rolls of paper were loaded onto special machines that created the tubes. The paper was printed (with the size and type of explosive to be placed inside), cut to proper diameter, and then rolled and sealed. The machines used at Senter could produce 100 shells every minute.

Since nitro was never handled in this building, it was spared the clean-up procedures that razed the rest of the buildings. The building today is relatively intact, except for a large amount of wall sections that have either collapsed or been destroyed while equipment was removed. It would appear that the building had been added onto several times in its life, since there are three distinct sections to the building. This is the middle section, where the shell machines where most likely housed. (Check out the BIG PICTURE for a better view)

Behind the rear wall in that middle section is another smaller section which can be seen here. After the shells had been rolled and sealed by the machines there then packed by hand into aluminum crates. The crates would then be dunked into melted wax then allowed to cool. The wax would waterproof the tubes and prevent the nitro from soaking into the shell. The wax coating must of been performed in this part of the building. (or perhaps this is where the shells were dried?)

Some interesting details could still be found within the building’s remains, even though most everything had been cleared out. Here’s an ambiguous sign still visible on the side of the wall: “Ring Off”. No idea what this means, but it looks as if some type of machine or instrument might of been connected to the wall underneath the sign.

These yellow markings are even a greater mystery. We found these marked along several doors along the building, but not all of them. We also found these along the warehouse doors on the safety side. I want to say they are some type of safety marking, as in “this door safe to use” or something.

Scattered all about the corners of the floor were piles upon piles of these paper patches. The patches were all round, but were of a variety of different sizes. I’m assuming this was a leftover from the shell making process, but I can’t think of from what.

Along one side of the building were a series of loading doors, just like this one. Here the wood door had fallen off its hinges. This would be where the finished shells were loaded onto horse-drawn rail cars to be brought over to the packing houses. Not the yellow mark on this door as well. We proceeded to step outside to take a look at the building back side…

To Be Continued…

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